Now Windows Tablets Will Be Just As Thin As The iPad Air Thanks To Intel's New Chip

When Apple unveiled the iPad Air in October, critics praised the
tablet for being the lightest and thinnest 10-inch slate you
could buy.

More recently, Microsoft bragged that its new Surface
Pro 3 tablet could pack a full-blown computing experience
into an airy tablet that's lighter than any laptop on the market.

Thanks to a new chip from Intel, however, supersleek devices
could become the norm rather than the exception.

At this year's Computex conference in Taiwan, Intel is providing
a glimpse at the types of devices that will run on its new
Broadwell processor.

Intel showed off a reference design for a superskinny tablet that
doesn't need a fan to keep it from overheating, which could
reduce the size of laptops and tablets dramatically.

Intel promises that Broadwell chips will enable fanless devices
that could function as both a "lightning-fast laptop and
razor-thin tablet," the company said on stage, according
to CNET.

The reference design, referred to as Llama Mountain, measures
just 0.28 inch thin, which is just slightly thinner than the
0.29-inch iPad Air.

The iPad Air also has a smaller 9.7-inch screen at that
thickness, whereas Intel's design has a 12.5-inch display, which
means that it's likely to feel even lighter since that thickness
is spread across a wider surface area.

The Llama Mountain tablet also runs Windows 8.1 Pro and works
with a keyboard accessory just like Microsoft's Surface Pro 3,
but at 1.47 pounds, it's a tad lighter than Microsoft's new
tablet (1.76 pounds).

Broadwell is able to facilitate such slim designs thanks to the
chip's new architecture, which measures 14 nanometers as
opposed to the previous generation Haswell's 22-nanometer
architecture. In other words, the new processor is really, really
tiny.

We're likely to see Broadwell appear in new devices throughout
2014 that could be substantially thinner than the technology
we're using today. Asus has already announced its Transformer
Book T300 Chi — its new Windows tablet-laptop hybrid that runs on
Broadwell.

Rumors have also suggested that Apple will soon release an even
thinner version of its MacBook Air with a 12-inch display,
and Intel's Broadwell chip could help facilitate such a device if
the speculation turns out to be true.